Medicine Religion And The Body

This book explores the ways in which the body is sacred in Western medicine, as well as how this idea is played out in questions of life and death, of the autopsy and of the meanings attributed to illnesses and disease. Ritual and religious modifications to, and limitations on what may be done to the body raise cross cultural issues of great complexity philosophically and theologically, as well as sociologically - within medicine and for health care practitioners, but also, as a matter of primary concern for the patient. The book explores the ways in which medicine organises the moral and the immoral, the sacred and the profane; how it mediates cultural concepts of the sacred of the body, of blood and of life and death.

Modern medicine has produced many wonderful technological breakthroughs that have extended the limits of the frail human body. However, much of the focus of this medical research has been on the physical, often reducing the human being to a biological machine to be examined, understood, and controlled. This book begins by asking whether the modern medical milieu has overly objectified the body, unwittingly or not, and whether current studies in bioethics are up to the task of restoring a fuller understanding of the human person. In response, various authors here suggest that a more theological/religious approach would be helpful, or perhaps even necessary. Presenting specific perspectives from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the book is divided into three parts: "Understanding the Body," "Respecting the Body," and "The Body at the End of Life." A panel of expert contributors—including philosophers, physicians, and theologians and scholars of religion— answer key questions such as: What is the relationship between body and soul? What are our obligations toward human bodies? How should medicine respond to suffering and death? The resulting text is an interdisciplinary treatise on how medicine can best function in our societies. Offering a new way to approach the medical humanities, this book will be of keen interest to any scholars with an interest in contemporary religious perspectives on medicine and the body.

Explores the interplay of medicine and religion in Western societies. Medicine and Religion is the first book to comprehensively examine the relationship between medicine and religion in the Western tradition from ancient times to the modern era. Beginning with the earliest attempts to heal the body and account for the meaning of illness in the ancient Near East, historian Gary B. Ferngren describes how the polytheistic religions of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome and the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have complemented medicine in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Ferngren paints a broad and detailed portrait of how humans throughout the ages have drawn on specific values of diverse religious traditions in caring for the body. Religious perspectives have informed both the treatment of disease and the provision of health care. And, while tensions have sometimes existed, relations between medicine and religion have often been cooperative and mutually beneficial. Religious beliefs provided a framework for explaining disease and suffering that was larger than medicine alone could offer. These beliefs furnished a theological basis for a compassionate care of the sick that led to the creation of the hospital and a long tradition of charitable medicine. Praise for Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity, by Gary B. Ferngren "This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—JAMA "An important book, for students of Christian theology who understand health and healing to be topics of theological interest, and for health care practitioners who seek a historical perspective on the development of the ethos of their vocation."—Journal of Religion and Health

Medicine, Religion, and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet will be the first title published in the new Templeton Science and Religion Series, in which scientists from a wide range of fields distill their experience and knowledge into brief tours of their respective specialties. In this, the series' maiden volume, Dr. Harold G. Koenig, provides an overview of the relationship between health care and religion that manages to be comprehensive yet concise, factual yet inspirational, and technical yet easily accessible to nonspecialists and general readers. Focusing on the scientific basis for integrating spirituality into medicine, Koenig carefully summarizes major trends, controversies, and the latest research from various disciplines and provides plausible and compelling theoretical explanations for what has thus far emerged in this relatively young field of study. Medicine, Religion, and Health begins by defining the principal terms and then moves on to a brief history of religion's role in medicine before delving into the current state of research. Koenig devotes several chapters to exploring the outcomes of specific studies in fields such as mental health, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. The book concludes with a review of the clinical applications derived from the research. Koenig also supplies several detailed appendices to aid readers of all levels looking for further information. Medicine, Religion, and Health will shed new light on critical contemporary issues. They will whet readers' appetites for more information on this fascinating, complex, and controversial area of research, clinical activity, and widespread discussion. It will find a welcome home on the bookshelves of students, researchers, clinicians, and other health professionals in a variety of disciplines.

A rich source for comparative studies of the 'body', and of its relation to society.

The relationships between religion, spirituality, health, biomedical institutions, complementary, and alternative healing systems are widely discussed today. While many of these debates revolve around the biomedical legitimacy of religious modes of healing, the market for them continues to grow. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty-five chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Healing practices with religious roots and frames Religious actors in and around the medical field Organizing infrastructures of religion and medicine: pluralism and competition Boundary-making between religion and medicine Religion and epidemics Within these sections, central issues, debates and problems are examined, including health and healing, religiosity, spirituality, biomedicine, medicalization, complementary medicine, medical therapy, efficacy, agency, and the nexus of body, mind, and spirit. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as sociology, anthropology, and medicine.

Religious therapeutics explores the relationship between psychophysical health and spiritual and health presents a model for interpreting connections between religion and medicine in world traditions. This model emerges from the work`s investigation of health and religiousness in classical yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra-Three Hindu traditions note worthy for the central role they accord the body. Author gregory P. Fields compares Anglo-European and Indian philosophies of body and health and uses fifteen determinants of health excavated from texts of ancient hindu medicine to show that health concerns the person, not the body or body/mind alone.

Historically, religion and medicine have been strongly connected. In more recent decades, various academics can be viewed as part of a larger movement to investigate the effects of religion on health in the field of complementary and alternative medicine. Such research is ongoing, but to date, the mechanisms underlying the association between religion and health remain unclear. A major reason for the lack of finding any mechanisms may be that religion and health literature provides no unified theoretical or theological basis from which to identify. Thus, to address this gap, Chapter 1 of this book briefly introduces the doctrine of "Happy Science", a religious movement founded by Master Ryuho Okawa in 1986 that has since grown into one of the most influential religious organisations in Japan, with a member base from more than 100 countries worldwide. As you will see in Chapter 1, Happy Science theory has embraced the basic teachings of the major religions (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism). Moreover, this theory provides concrete tenets on the spiritual views of life, the purpose of living in this world, the structure of our mind and soul, and the relationships between mind and body. In Chapter 2, the Happy Science theory on diseases suggests that 70% or 80% of diseases are caused almost exclusively by an individual's state of mind. Master Okawa has detailed how almost all modern diseases are caused by three factors -- what we eat, lack of exercise, and stress -- which indicates that psychological factors have a much stronger impact on the etiology and prognosis of illnesses than any physical, environmental or genetic factors per se. Chapter 3 explains the treatment theories and methods based on the basic tenets of Happy Science. In particular, since the Happy Science doctrine regards medical care as love, these treatment theories and methods are systematically introduced according to the stages of love: fundamental love (having spiritual views on life, smiling, and showing gratitude), spiritually nurturing love (having a healthy lifestyle, developing problem-solving skills, and making strategic withdrawals or adhering to Optimalism), forgiving love (detaching from greed, forgiving, and developing altruism), and love incarnate (using positive willpower, faith and prayer, meditation, and collapse of karma). In addition, throughout this book, the author has provided case reports that make it easier to imagine how those with severe disorders can be miraculously cured through Happy Science Medicine.